Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Do you think that global
corporations are evil?

Wait till you hear this.

It used to be that if an
American company invested in Canada and some disagreement arose
between the US and the Canadian businesses, their disagreement would
be adjudicated under Canadian law. In recent years transnational
trade agreements provide for what is called “Investor-state
arbitration.” Under such treaties, an arbitration panel staffed by
lawyers, who also may be involved in international trade and in court cases
concerning international trade, is empowered to resolve disagreements
regardless of the laws in the country where the investment is made.
These arbitration panel decisions override court decisions of the
country where an, often North American, corporation has made
investments. Arbitration panels of this kind can override national
sovereignty and governments duly elected by the people of another
country.

There are a number of cases
where North American drug companies have appealed to these somewhat
shadowy tribunals in order to prevent Canadian manufacturers of
generic drugs from selling those in the US or even in Canada. In
other cases North American chemical companies complained about the
Canadian limitations on poisonous agricultural chemicals. They
appealed to the arbitration panels for permission to sell their
highly toxic agricultural chemicalseven
where Canadian law prohibited that.

The upshot is that before US
investors will invest in a foreign country, the country first must
sign a treaty with the US which limits the application of their
legislation and their courts and their government sovereignty in the
interest of allowing US companies to override local law and court
decisions.

A particularly startling
example of this kind of naked imperialism is the experience of
Ecuador. Between 1964 and 1992 Texaco explored for and drilled for
oil in the Amazonian jungle of Ecuador. During that time the company
is accused of dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic water
into streams and rivers used by the local, indigenous inhabitants.

The indigenous peoples sued in
Ecuadorian and in US courts. After losing repeatedly over an 18 year
period, the plaintiff's finally won in an Ecuadorian court and then
in the appellate court. Chevron, who had bought the operation from
Texaco, was ordered to pay $18 billion for cleanup and punitive
damages to the indigenous Ecuadorian people.

But that did not settle
anything at all. In February of this year one of the shadowy
“investor – state” tribunals ordered the Ecuadorian government
to stop enforcing the decree of their own courts. Chevron has still
not done any cleanup. It has not paid any reparations. It has sought
refuge under the greater power of the US government and the US
economy to invade the decisions of a legitimate Ecuadorian
government.

The investor-state tribunal can give orders to the government of another nation, a government that the citizens of that country elected. US corporations arrogate to themselves power over foreign government. They enforce those outrageous claims by threatening to withdraw investments from those other countries. Imperialism is alive and well.

Is it any wonder that foreign
countries and their populations call us “bullies”?